


Happiness in the Having

by szucsf



Series: Don't You Cry No More [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: (it's still Supernatural), Canon Compliant, Established Castiel/Dean Winchester, Established Relationship, Fluff, Healthy Relationships, Light Angst, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Episode: s15e20 Carry On
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:35:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27973791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/szucsf/pseuds/szucsf
Summary: Dean is content with his afterlife.(Continuation of One Last Thing but could be read alone.)
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Series: Don't You Cry No More [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2048827
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	Happiness in the Having

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, guys! I've had this in my mind since I posted One Last Thing and I needed to write it. Hope you like it.

The Roadhouse was almost empty. It wasn’t always like that. Sometimes other souls wandered in, finding it by exploring the infinity of Heaven. People from different times and places all drinking together and chatting was a pretty common sight.

Now it was five people in total. Ellen was behind the counter, drying the glasses, a task she could do with a thought but never did. Ash was at the pool table shooting one ball after the other into the pockets, his computer sitting at the edge of the table, row after row of code rolling over the screen. Charlie was sitting in the corner with an actual Nintendo playing who knows what. Sam was sitting across her with a book about Gary Ridgway, living (or, you know, not living) for his obsession on serial killers, occasionally reading something he found interesting aloud to the others.

Dean was at the counter with a beer, sipping it leisurely, enjoying Robert Johnson crooning from the juke-box. He could go to Bobby’s later, maybe Karen had a pie in the oven. She did a mean pie. And they could throw a grill party at the beach in the near future. Now he was just glad that he was sitting with some of his family, just enjoying the peace and quiet. The rain outside hitting the windows was a nice background noise, not bothering anyone.

A couple songs later the door opened and Cas walked in, a smile on his face as his eyes met Dean’s, and the hunter couldn’t help his own grin, his stomach doing actual somersaults.

“Hello,” he nodded at everyone.

“Hi, Cas,” Charlie and Sam said in chorus, Ash waving briefly with his cue stick without looking up from his game, probably in the middle of solving equations with the balls or something. Ellen smiled at him, already pulling another beer from under the counter.

Cas walked straight to Dean who pulled him down by his tie for a kiss. He never got tired of this feeling and he had no clue how he’d lived his whole life without it.

“Hey, sunshine,” he grinned at the angel when he pulled back an inch just to look into those impossibly blue eyes. “You were gone when I woke up,” he whispered between them.

Cas hummed, a hand resting comfortably on Dean’s waist. He was completely dry like he hadn’t just come from a downpour.

“I left a note,” he murmured. “Told you I won’t be gone for long.”

“Not by my standards, probably,” Dean argued because he could.

“You control your own time, Dean,” he rolled his eyes. He sat down and took the beer from Ellen with a quiet thanks, his free hand resting on Dean’s knee.

“So where did you flap off to?” Charlie skipped over to them with an excited smile.

“Kevin Tran stepped into Heaven,” Cas told her which earned Sam’s immediate attention.

“Kevin’s here?” he stood up and came over to them, too.

“The prophet kid?” Ash asked.

“Yes,” Cas confirmed with a nod. “His father’s ring was burned and his spirit’s now here. As the last prophet of the Lord, I welcomed him myself.”

“How did he take that?” Dean arched an eyebrow. Kevin never had been the fan of angels and his interactions with Cas hadn’t been exactly friendly.

“I took his mother with me,” Cas said. “He didn’t really care about anything else.”

“Glad the kid’s finally at peace,” Dean grumbled into his drink. “He fucking deserves it.”

“We could visit him later?” Sam phrased it more of a question.

“Yeah, alright,” Dean agreed.

“Can I go?” Charlie asked in her usual cheery way.

“Maybe it should be just us at first,” Sam put a hand on her shoulder. “You know, testing the waters. Then we could invite him and Linda over.”

Yes, this was something Dean needed to ask Cas. Last time they’d seen Kevin, he was ready to become a vengeful spirit, no hard feelings towards the Winchesters. It was debatable if that stuck with him if he had been alone for so long. Cas should know these things.

Dean hardly registered how he covered Cas’ hand with his, their fingers entwining in a loose grip. It was an almost instinctual movement by now, touching Cas at least some way, feeling his warm skin against his own. The angel shot him a small, pleased smile every time Dean did it and he soaked up that reaction with everything he had.

Cas had explained clearly that angels didn’t feel the urge to touch and be touched and that was mostly true for him, too – the exceptions were Dean and Jack. As always, it seemed. He felt affection and was ready to reciprocate such gestures anytime for Sam, for Charlie, for all their friends, but Dean was the only one he wanted to be around constantly and missed every moment they weren’t by each other’s side. That was completely okay by Dean even if he’d been beat red by the end of this confession. They were pretty good at the communicating stuff, actually, now that they were doing it properly.

It had started with Cas saying out of the blue what Naomi had done to him, time and time again, how he’d been reconditioned every time he stepped out of line, most of which he couldn’t even remember. How she’d had enough of his constant rebellion and gone to extreme measures to ensure an unwavering loyalty, how he was forced to kill hundreds of Dean’s exact copy to get rid of his human weakness. How he still hadn’t been able to do it in the crypt, not in control of his own body, fighting every second. That Dean had been the one who helped break the connection.

This was followed by Dean a short while later, when they had been cuddling in their still new bed, telling him how he’d been every time he’d lost Cas, how it had been harder and harder every time and how he’d just wanted to give up after Jack was born. Cas had held him through it, his chest steadily moving with every breath under Dean’s head.

It took a while but slowly they’d sorted through twelve years of friendship and deceiving and sacrifice. Dean hadn’t known he could actually be exhausted when he was dead but those talks had worn him out emotionally like nothing before. He had actually cried himself to sleep (he slept because he could, because there weren’t nightmares and Cas was there) when his angel told him the real reason he’d said yes to Lucifer, that self-hatred and abandonment and Dean – and Sam, most of the time – acting like they didn’t care about his well-being had been the motivation to give up himself so the brothers could have someone useful on their side. That they’d only called him when they needed his help, their own problems always more important.

It had been hard, one of the hardest things Dean had ever done, to actually pull through this and not let his own issues get in the way of that wonderful thing he had with Cas. It had been worth it and Dean had known that. Now they could talk about anything without it ending in a shouting match or one of them walking out with wounded pride and it was an incredible relief for the both of them.

So when Cas asked Ellen after a bit more of Heaven-talk if he could have a word with her privately and Ellen’s face lit up with wary hope, he didn’t pry and let Cas go with a parting kiss to his cheek. His angel would tell him what this was about. Not that Dean couldn’t guess.

Cas came back alone and he didn’t need to say to not disturb Ellen for a while. Ash stayed behind as he always did and the others packed up and piled out onto the porch. The rain stopped just as they stepped out, the air pleasantly warm.

“Wanna go for a walk?” Dean asked Cas, his hand once again clasping the angel’s. He’d never been much for hand holding or casual PDA while he had been alive but he was almost addicted to the feeling of Cas’ palm pressed against his own.

“Of course,” the angel smiled at him with that soft look in his eyes Dean now didn’t try to hide from but what still made him a flustered idiot. He really hoped that wouldn’t change anytime soon.

“See you later, guys,” Sam nodded at them and asked Charlie if she wanted to join Eileen and him for dinner at Jody and Donna’s. Dean knew the answer so he started walking towards Bobby’s house, Cas right by his side.

It took maybe a couple minutes of comfortable silence when Cas spoke up.

“I talked to Rowena and the new Death. We made arrangements with the hellhounds. Not that there would be much of a problem with that, Rowena still keeps away from the deals. Says the hounds are looking better around her throne and guarding her door. But if they kill someone it doesn’t automatically means they go to Hell. Same goes for angry spirits. Death – his name’s Dearil – will talk to Anubis about that, too.”

“And Jo?” Dean had to ask because that was important. That was what brought up the meeting in the first place. Because even if Ellen had been blown up, Jo had been technically killed by a hellhound. And as it had been with Eileen at first, she hadn’t made it upstairs.

“I talked to her,” Cas said, a sadness in his eyes. “It’s already too late for her, have been for a long time. She played her cards right. Never took a side before Rowena. Kept herself low-level, vanished when she could. Now she’s one of the best warrior she has. Rowena seems to collect Winchester-sympathizers around herself because one of her advisors is named Bela Talbot. Said you’d recognize the name.”

“Sure do,” Dean laughed out loud. Of course Bela was right by Rowena’s side, where else would she be? “Thanks for this, Cas.”

“It needed to be done,” Cas shrugged like it was nothing and Dean loved him so fucking much.

Bobby’s house was already visible in the distance but Dean stopped and pulled a surprised angel in for a deep kiss. Cas melted against him like he always did, their lips moving in a well-practiced dance, tongues sliding together sensually. It was easy to get lost in the feeling and even though Dean’s stomach curled with low arousal (nothing unusual while kissing Cas, honestly), he didn’t feel the need to take it further.

“You’re awesome,” he breathed against Cas’ jawline, lingering for a moment. There was a rustling sound at Cas’ back, a flash of rainbow-colored feathers obscuring Dean’s vision for a moment, a sure sign of Cas’ happiness.

The wings were another thing that had taken time to get used to, but not in the bad way. Dean was dead, he couldn’t come to harm by seeing them. They were vast and full and perfect, restored to their full glory by Jack. Gotten an upgrade, too, as Cas had said, their ever-changing colors nothing like the black and dark gray they had been, marred by hellfire and the Fall. Dean was almost as much in love with them as he was with their owner.

“We should see my parents,” he blurted out. “Dad haven’t met you yet.”

That was the only thing left unsolved in Dean’s afterlife. He had always found something to do instead of visiting them, telling himself he had time and as much as he wanted to see his mother, the presence of John was something he wasn’t really ready to face. He was not-living with an angel in a male vessel and hadn’t the faintest idea how that would go down.

But this thing with Cas was permanent, he was the Mary to Dean’s John (or the Colette to his Cain, he’d always thought that was more fitting) and if his dad couldn’t swallow that pill, Dean would have to deal. Not that Cas was a fan of the Winchester-patriarch either, which okay, understandable, but still.

They could maybe find Henry, too. His grandfather would be all over Cas and his angelness for sure. Would probably made him sit down and geek out over him for hours.

“I’d like to see Mary,” Cas smiled. “But I’m not sure that’s a good idea right now. Adam’s at their house at the moment.”

“Oh fuck,” was all Dean could say. That was not a situation he wanted to barge in on.

“It’s not as bad as you think,” Cas shrugged, his constant knowledge of what was going around in any part of Heaven if he concentrated enough had come in handy a couple times already. Thanks to it Dean had avoided interrupting Sam and Eileen three times. “Mary’s really excited to get to know him, but she’s not happy with how John handled the situation. He wasn’t exactly there for Adam and it ultimately got both him and his mother killed.”

“Fine. We can go tomorrow,” Dean decided quickly.

Cas grinned that bright, sunny thing he reserved just for him and tugged on his hand.

“Come on, Dean. Bobby’s already seen us and pulled out the whiskey. I think there’s some pie waiting for you, too.”

Dean was more than happy to follow him. Sharing pie with some of his favorite people sounded amazing.


End file.
